Jimmy Davis Sleeps With The Fishes
by Jennifer James
Summary: Anita learns that kids say the darnedest things.


_Disclaimer: Honestly… does it bear repeating?_

_Written for Cirocco's Thursday100 Plus 'Notes' Challenge on LiveJournal._

_Based on a true story.__ Names have been changed to protect the innocent. =)_

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**_1993_**

Anita tried to keep a straight face as she read the note scribbled in childish block letters. She was a cop, after all, and knew that threatening a person with bodily harm didn't get anyone a pat on the head and a trip to Disney World. However, sitting crouched in an undersized chair with her knees practically touching her chest, surrounded by tinker toys, building blocks and construction paper cut-outs of the alphabet made taking the contents of the note seriously something of a challenge.

"You can see why I'd be concerned, Mrs. Van Buren." The petite blonde with enormous blue eyes nervously beseeched. Anita always thought the young woman was a fascinating study of contradictions. She clearly adored the children in her charge, but at the same time appeared utterly terrified of them.

"Uh, yeah." Anita suppressed the giggle bubbling at the back of her throat. "I imagine finding something like this could be a little… disconcerting."

"Stefan is such a wonderful child." The teacher repeated for the seventh time in the five minutes since Anita arrived. Her voice quivered and Anita thought she sounded perilously close to tears. "It's just so out of character for him."

"Yes, I understand." Anita assured her and looked down at the note on her lap.

In big, bold letters her normally even tempered, happy-go-lucky child had made a fatuous vow to his best friend.

_Jimmy Davis,_

_You R ded meet._

_Stefan Van Buren_

"He must've gotten it mixed up with the papers I had them turn in yesterday. When I found it last night I nearly fainted." She confessed. "I pulled Stefan aside this morning to ask him what it was all about before I called you."

"And?"

"All he'd say was 'Nobody talks about my mama'."

So that was it. Her junior hit man was defending his mother's honor. Anita folded the piece of paper and gave it back to the teacher. "Where is Stefan?"

"He's supposed to be in music, but I had him wait next door in Mrs. O'Reilly's room." She said as she hurried out the door.

Anita stood up, aided by one of the pint sized desks, and stretched. The fact that he'd bungled an integral part of the operation didn't bode well for his future in crime and she took comfort in that. But still…

She heard the door squeak when it opened and turned around as her oldest child entered the room. The infectious smile that usually graced his chubby cheeks was absent as he stood with his hands stuffed in his pockets and his eyes downcast.

"Hi, Mama."

"Hello, Stefan." Anita signaled for him to come closer and he did. "Y'know, this isn't exactly what I thought we'd be doing right about now when you kissed me goodbye this morning."

He nodded but said nothing.

"Baby, what's going on with you and Jimmy?" She asked tenderly. "I thought he was your best friend."

"That punk ain't my friend!" Stefan snarled. Anita leveled him with a withering gaze.

"Excuse me? Now you know I don't allow that kind of language, young man."

Stefan pouted and offered a half hearted, "Sorry."

"Sit down, Stefan." Anita pulled the teacher's chair over and sat down beside him. "Now what happened that made you write a note to Jimmy telling him that he's dead meat?"

He squirmed in his seat, the turmoil visible on his cherubic face.

"It was something about me?" She prodded gently. Stefan looked down at his feet, avoiding her eyes. Anita cupped his face in her hand. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Well?"

Stefan's face contorted as he spat, "Jimmy said you wasn't a virgin!"

Anita did a double take and she shook her head to make sure she'd heard him correctly. "Wha… huh?"

"That's what he said yesterday when we was on the playground." He verified. "He said, 'Your mama ain't no virgin!' and I said, 'Uh huh! Yes she is!'."

Stefan proceeded to give her a blow by blow (literally; it was revealed that he'd popped Jimmy upside the head for making the defaming charge) account of the previous day's events and Anita practically bit a whole on the inside of her cheek trying to keep from laughing.

From his ramblings she was able to discern that Jimmy had overheard his older brother and a pal giving their more than likely uniformed opinions on which of their female classmates had 'done it' and which ones were still virgins. Jimmy, always a bit of a show off and know-it-all, wasted little time passing on his newfound knowledge to his classmates. There also appeared to have been a bit of debate establishing exactly what a virgin was because another of Stefan's friends insisted it was a kind of fish his father caught on their last camping trip. But that explanation had been challenged and quickly discarded because how could anyone, even a stupid girl, be a fish?

"Stefan," Anita began slowly after he'd finished the lurid tale. "Baby, do you know what that word means?"

The space between his brows furrowed as Stefan reluctantly admitted that he didn't know what a virgin was despite his vehement assertion that his mother was indeed one.

"And yet, you got so mad over it." Her voice was soothing, but firm. "Mad enough to make what somebody who might not know you very well take as a serious threat."

Stefan's face softened and for the first time since he'd come into the room, she saw the sweet, loving boy she knew. He had tried to be so tough. After all; he was seven now. He picked out his own clothes and he rode the bus to school all by himself, but at that moment he wished he were still a little kid like his brother Rick so he could crawl onto his mother's lap without fear of being ridiculed.

Anita held out her hand and he took it. She circled her arm around his waist, pulling him next to her, and Stefan gratefully rested his forehead against her shoulder. It was the next best thing to being on his mom's lap and if anybody saw they couldn't accuse him of acting like a baby.

After a moment he admitted, "It was the _way_ he said it. Like… like if you wasn't one, it was bad."

"Do you think I'm bad?"

"No!"

"And do you think you know me better than Jimmy does?"

"Yeah."

"So it really doesn't matter what he says I am or I'm not, does it?" She made Stefan look at her. "I appreciate you wanting to defend me, sweetheart, but you just can't go around threatening people. Even if you feel like you have a good reason. D'you understand?"

He nodded that he understood. Anita kissed his forehead and told him that he would have to apologize for hitting Jimmy and also for scaring his teacher out of her wits.

"And we'll talk about the rest when you get home."

"You mean about the honeys and the bees?"

Finally Anita felt it appropriate to laugh. "Yeah, your dad'll explain all about the honeys and the bees."

Later that night after she'd told Don about everything and they'd shared a good laugh, she asked him how he was going to handle the delicate talk with their precocious youngster. He thought about it and after a few seconds offered his suggestion with a shrug and a wicked grin.

"Draw him a picture?"

Anita brained him.


End file.
